Good day and welcome to WSJ Pro Bankruptcy's Daily Briefing. It's Wednesday, April 30. In today's briefing, solar-panel installer Sunnova is preparing to file for bankruptcy within weeks after struggling with an $8.5 billion debt load and waning liquidity, people familiar with the matter said. And a Texas judge rejected personal-injury claimants’ request to dismiss the chapter 11 case of defunct talc supplier Barretts Minerals.

Solar-panel installer Sunnova prepares for bankruptcy filing within weeks. Sunnova Energy International, one of the largest solar-panel installation companies in the U.S., is preparing to file for bankruptcy within weeks following struggles with an $8.5 billion debt load and waning liquidity, people familiar with the plans said.

• Sunnova also said in a securities filing Tuesday that it has hired a chief restructuring officer, tapping Ryan Omohundro, a managing director at Alvarez & Marsal, to fill the role.

Barretts Minerals beats challenge to talc bankruptcy case. A Texas judge declined to toss a defunct talc supplier out of bankruptcy despite arguments from personal-injury claimants that it was improperly using chapter 11 to protect its solvent parent company, Pfizer spinoff Minerals Technologies, from talc-related lawsuits.

Judge Marvin Isgur of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston on Tuesday rejected injury claimants’ request to dismiss the chapter 11 case of defunct Barretts Minerals without explaining his rationale. His ruling followed a trial in which lawyers for injury claimants asserted that Barretts didn’t qualify for bankruptcy.

23andMe agrees to creditors’ privacy demands. Bankrupt genetic testing company 23andMe is dropping its opposition to the appointment of a consumer privacy ombudsman, agreeing to demands from state attorneys general and its committee of unsecured creditors for data oversight.

On Tuesday, the company asked Missouri bankruptcy judge Brian Walsh to authorize the appointment of a CPO, which ensures that a company does not violate its privacy policies when selling itself through bankruptcy.

23andMe had previously declined to appoint a CPO, instead asking to appoint an independent customer data representative. It received objections primarily from state attorneys general, who have concerns about the genetic data privacy of their constituents.

23andMe attorney Christopher Hopkins of Paul Weiss said the decision should “give people comfort.” After two extensions, the company’s deadline for potential stalking-horse bids is now set for Wednesday –Alicia McElhaney

Insurer again fails to block asbestos-related bankruptcy plan.  Truck Insurance Exchange might have won a legal fight last year in the U.S. Supreme Court, but it turned out to be something of a hollow victory.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on Tuesday affirmed a lower-court decision that a Kaiser Gypsum bankruptcy plan that included an asbestos settlement trust was proposed in good faith. The appeals court ruled against Truck, which argued that the chapter 11 plan failed to guard against fraudulent or duplicative claims.

Last year, Truck successfully argued before the Supreme Court that it had legal standing to challenge the now-defunct cement maker’s bankruptcy plan, which sought to resolve claims over illnesses caused by asbestos. The high court sided with Truck, saying that as an insurer with a financial responsibility for bankruptcy claims, Truck was a “party in interest” that could object in the bankruptcy.

Then the Supreme Court sent the case back to the appeals court. In its opinion Tuesday, the appeals court said Truck offers “no evidence of the fraud it complains about.”

“Truck did not point to a single claimant that had sued Kaiser for asbestos-related injuries and then later filed claims for those same injuries with other trusts or private parties,” the opinion said.

The bankruptcy plan provided for an asbestos settlement trust funded with $49 million, and opened the door for claimants to pursue more money from Kaiser Gypsum’s insurance policies. –Becky Yerak

Nobody has felt the office market's pain more than this guy. Brandon Shorenstein became one of the biggest owners of office buildings under the worst circumstances imaginable. He was thrust into the top job of his family’s real-estate company just as Covid-19 was sending the U.S. office market into a tailspin. Now its strategy of buying properties during the pandemic doldrums is looking like a loser amid newfound concerns of a trade war and possible recession.

Shorenstein Properties isn’t going to collapse or face a bankruptcy filing, but the firm may have a harder time raising new money because of its beleaguered track record. Its fee revenue is also declining as its assets shrink. Right now, the company has office buildings with mortgages totaling at least three-quarters of a billion dollars at risk.

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